MaterMark

Hello, I'm Mark from Buffalo, where it's 50 degrees at 3am on January 11th!
I'm in a couple S10 or ZR2 forums (if they are still around, at least one is!)
I'm in a couple gardening or tomato-specific forums too, many there know me as MaterMark.

Before I ever had that nickname, many of my friends used to call me "Bowtie" because in the mid-'80's I opened a retail store called Bowtie Supply. We specialized in '67-'69 Camaro & Firebird, '64-'72 Chevelle & El Camino, '70-'72 Monte Carlo,'67-'72 Chevy truck & Blazer, '55-'57 & '58-'70 Chevy Full-size, '62-'74 ChevyII/Nova, and '70-'74 Camaro/Firebird.Of course, many parts interchanged between GM divisions, so we covered GTO/LeMans, Skylark/GS, Cutlass/442, etc. We sold both NOS & Reproduction parts; we had the lowest prices in the Northeast (and maybe beyond!) on Genuine GM Parts...

Before then, I bought & sold mostly '67-'69 Camaro parts, SB & BB Chevy parts, and speed parts and attended many local & regional auto swap meets like Hamburg, Niagara, Dunkirk, Pittsburgh Parts-a-Rama, Connellsville (PA), Canfield OH, Kingston PA, Carlisle, as well as some west coast venues like Long Beach, Pomona, and some shows in the Phoenix & Tucson area.

I used to also fly out to Phoenix and stay at a friend's house and have him take me looking at cars, trucks, and El Caminos. I'd buy a truck or EC and go junkyardin', filling them up, bringing back specific rust-free parts for customers or inventory, hard to find parts, consoles, rust-free, pit-free chrome, like bumper guards, emblems and trim, as well as really rust-free Chevys. Including some finds in Tucson & Pomona, like these:

1969 El Camino SS396, silver on black, bench
1972 Monte Carlo 402, White vinyl on Orange Flame on black cloth power buckets/console, really loaded
1970 Monte Carlo SS454, Black vinyl on Forest Green on green buckets/console, lamp monitor system, really loaded
1969 Impala 427 Convertible, White top on red on red, AC
1972 K5 Blazer Roadster, 350, AC...
#1. jackknifed in AZ towing the 427 Impala, took out the K5's quarter...
#2. blew a head gasket in IL...
#3. Nursed it home.
#4. Put a new quarter on it, got a lacquer paint job, I wet sanded & rubbed it out.
#5. I built a 383ci w/aluminum heads with some mild port work, cam, headers/dual exhaust.
#6. Went to Race it for Amateur Nite Races... w/no roof, they turned me away.
#7. Drove about 400 miles roundtrip next morning for rollbar.
#8. Back at track following week, ran mid 8's in 1/8th mile... looked at column, I was only in L2!
#9. Took it to Sherkston Beach in Canada--got hit on the hood by a hardball.
#10. Put the roof back on, sold it.
1978 El Camino SS 350, Maroon on red (oxblood?), buckets/console, really loaded
1964 El Camino 327, Tan on some brownish color
1963 Impala SS 327, Black on black cloth buckets/console... sold there due to Virgin Mary etched in back window...
1970 Monte Carlo 400 Turbo Jet Big Block, Green vinyl on Forest Green on green buckets/console, loaded
1972 Chevy Custom Deluxe/10 pickup, White on yellow two-tone on white
1972 C/30 Truck Car hauler conversion, Orange on black, 4-speed... blew a tire outside Terre Haute IN 5AM with the '69 EC SS396 on back...
1978 Custom 20, Duallie conversion (A&A fiberglass flares, 17" duallie wheels), white on saddle
1980 Scottsdale 4x4, Copper on saddle
1979 Scottsdale Stepside 4x4, custom Silver on maroon on oxblood? Rollbar, Lift kit, BFG 33's.
1968 Buick Skylark Convertible 350-4, White on lt. blue on white buckets
1975 El Camino 350 with Cap/Topper, light "pea soup" green on black
1980 El Camino 267 V8, Silver on dark blue
1979 Pontiac Grand Prix, Silver blue on lt. blue, really nice car til girl in truck hit it reaching for her french fries that fell while turning corner...

All the cars & trucks had AC except the 1972 car hauler (I'm not positive on the hauler, but everything else had AC.)

I also have/had a 1984 Monte Carlo SS that's drivetrain's been extensively modified, but I guess it'd be considered old school by today's standards--it has a polished Lingenfelter/Accel SuperRam DFI with AFR heads & a Callies crank kit. It came with a TH350C and I built an Art Carr 200 4R with 8" & 10" converters. It's in various states of disrepair-- blew an intake gasket (rr. water passage) and has sat getting rust...

I feel fortunate to have had the shop and all those vehicles! I hope I can fit in here!

MM

Contra

Hello

oldchevy

Hello from sunny Miami Florida.

MaterMark

Hello Contra & oldchevy, thanks for the welcome!

Irish_alley

welcome from maryland where its now 70°

MaterMark

Thanks Irish! It's 53F at 4:15pm, in between soakers--rained for hours, more still to come--they even issued a rainfall warning! Expecting over 2" of rain before it's over. Then we'll just have 50-60 mph wind gusts! This is unheard of for Buffalo in January! 20-25 degrees colder and we'd be talking about a blizzard with 2 feet of snow! If it gets any warmer, I'll have to consider sliding under my ZR2 & dropping the 4l60e trans onto my chest for a rebuild! This time tomorrow will be 30F!